Far from doing this
they retain her as a hostage, and place her in such a position that,
if there is firing from the chateau, she may receive the bullets.
Meanwhile, the doors are forced, the house is pillaged from top to
bottom, and then set on fire; M. Guillin, who seeks refuge in the
keep, is almost reached by the flames. At this moment, some of the
assailants, less ferocious than the rest, prevail upon him to
descend, and they answer for his life. Scarcely has he shown
himself when others fall on him; they cry that he must be killed,
that he has a life-rent of 36,000 francs from the State, and "this
will be so much saved for the nation." "He is hacked to pieces
alive;" his head is cut off and borne upon a pike; his body is cut
up, and sent piece by piece to each parish; several wash their hands
in his blood, and besmear their faces with it. It seems as if
tumult, clamor, incendiarism, robbery, and murder had aroused in
them not only the cruel instincts of the savage, but the carnivorous
appetites of the brute; some of them, seized by the gendarmerie at
Chasselay, had roasted the dead man's arm and dined upon it.
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